California-based Realty Trac Inc. counts every foreclosure filing and has some very good news about the Foreclosure Market. The average number of foreclosures for the U.S. for August was 1/419, but this doesn't tell the complete story. Forty states had numbers that were better than 1/500.
What does this mean? Banks anticipate a 1 to 2 percent foreclosure rate. These 40 states had a rate that was 2/10 of 1 percent or better! That's 20 percent of what they would expect in normal times.
Also, Hitwise reported today that there has been a 106% increase in the number of web searches for "houses for sale."
So, if Congress doesn't totally botch the financial mess, 2009 may be the return to a more normal market. There's a lot of pent up demand, Buyers sitting on the sideline waiting for a signal that it is safe to get back in the housing market.